French Kisses

This is a curated compilation of six sexy French short LGBT movies that range from light-hearted comedy to rather melodramatic fare that are all rather entertaining in their own way.

The collection starts on a particular high note with "Apollon," by Loic Dimitch, and it's the cute story of a frustrated teenage boy who is obsessed with penis envy as he thinks his is not as big as everybody's else's. Bananas feature very heavily in this comic tale.

"Ruptures" is the tale of Gabriel who, in the middle of shooting a documentary about how people break off their relationships, comes across Andre, the big love of his life who he brutally walked away from 10 years ago without a real explanation. Has Gabriel grown up enough to realize what he missed out on, and will Andre ever be able to really forgive him so that they can both move on?

Arthur Cahn wrote, directed and starred in "Herculaneum," a sweet tale of two men who meet up through a gay hookup site and over three 'dates' discover more about themselves and each other than they had planned.

In "En Retour," Jean-Marc is cooking dinner for his guest who turns out to be Simon, a young hooker who he hasn't seen for some months. The atmosphere over dinner is very warm and friendly and afterwards they adjourn to the bedroom where Simon earns his money. However the cordiality soon disappears when Simon's mood turns ugly and a very menacing situation develops. Co-written by Thibaut Wacksmann who also played Simon.

The other two short movies are "Juliet Electrique" and the rather odd and intriguing "Body of Angels."

There is a real European sensibility to all these shorts, which mark them out as quite different than U.S. queer movies, and gives them a beguiling edge that makes them so very watchable.